In many highly COVID-19 vaccinated countries, we're now seeing an interesting new trend: infection rates are going down while death rates are rising. How could this happen?
Remember the key slide I've been appending to many of my articles (e.g. https://www.voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org/scientific-blog/when-the-sweet-canary-in-the-coal-mine-eventually-puts-on-his-wolfs-clothes)
It explains why enhanced intrinsic infectiousness of the virus results in increased 'neutralization' of progeny virus by DCs, thereby (paradoxically!) mitigating inter-host transmission. Increased adsorption of progeny virus to URT-resident DCs leads to a lower concentration of PNNAbs bound to DC-tethered virions. As this diminishes the virulence-inhibiting capacity of these Abs, C-19 vaccinees become increasingly susceptible to severe disease (i.e., intra-host viral transmission). In other words, diminishing viral infection rates (due to diminished inter-host transmission) eventually drive a higher prevalence of intra-host transmission. The currently observed surge of severe disease cases itself is not alarming, but the signal it sends is, namely that highly C-19 vaccinated populations are decreasing their PNNAbs and thus more and more vaccinated individuals are left with increasingly less effective protection against viral virulence. Could it be any clearer that this evolution (reduced inter-host spread of the virus accompanied by increased intra-host dissemination) indicates that these highly vaccinated populations are now exerting an ever higher immune pressure on viral virulence? What else does one need to conclude that a tsunami is on the horizon?
Geert Vanden Bossche received his DVM from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and his PhD degree in Virology from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. He held adjunct faculty appointments at universities in Belgium and Germany. After his career in Academia, Geert joined several vaccine companies (GSK Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines, Solvay Biologicals) to serve various roles in vaccine R&D as well as in late vaccine development.
Geert then moved on to join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Discovery team in Seattle (USA) as Senior Program Officer; he then worked with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in Geneva as Senior Ebola Program Manager. At GAVI he tracked efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine. He also represented GAVI in fora with other partners, including WHO, to review progress on the fight against Ebola and to build plans for global pandemic preparedness.
Back in 2015, Geert scrutinized and questioned the safety of the Ebola vaccine that was used in ring vaccination trials conducted by WHO in Guinea. His critical scientific analysis and report on the data published by WHO in the Lancet in 2015 was sent to all international health and regulatory authorities involved in the Ebola vaccination program. After working for GAVI, Geert joined the German Center for Infection Research in Cologne as Head of the Vaccine Development Office. He is at present primarily serving as a Biotech / Vaccine consultant while also conducting his own research on Natural Killer cell-based vaccines.
Email: info@voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org
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